


I Would Follow You Anywhere

by anglophileadventures



Series: Fuckboi Newt [3]
Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Immigration & Emigration, M/M, Newt and Thomas are sad because they might be separated, Thomas needs a new visa, his student visa is expiring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-05
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-04-18 17:51:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14218494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anglophileadventures/pseuds/anglophileadventures
Summary: Thomas is graduating soon, which means his student visa expires. If he can't get a work visa, he'll have to leave the country... and his boyfriend Newt.





	I Would Follow You Anywhere

**Author's Note:**

> Wow so this was A Trip™ to write. Never research immigration law unless you want to go into a depression coma for a few days. But seriously I worked really hard on this and I hope it pays off and everyone enjoys :)

Thomas woke up slowly, gradually, to sunlight peeking in through a gap in the curtains. He rolled over and saw Newt, still asleep. His face looked smooth and peaceful, and his mouth hung slightly open as he breathed softly. Thomas felt a rush of warmth flooding through him, and he reached a hand out to gently stroke Newt’s hair.  
  
Newt stirred under his hand, and his eyelids fluttered open. He looked across at Thomas and smiled. “Morning,” he said, his voice still rough from sleep.  
  
“Sorry, did I wake you?” Thomas asked quietly.  
  
“No, I was waking up anyway.”  
  
“How do you know?” Thomas laughed.  
  
“I just know.” His voice sounded dry; it rasped and cracked.  
  
“Let me get you a drink of water,” Thomas said, sitting up and moving to crawl around Newt to get out of bed.  
  
“You don’t have to do that,” Newt protested weakly, but he was smiling.  
  
“Shut up, I’m already up.” Thomas smiled, then swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. He padded barefoot downstairs to the kitchen, which luckily was deserted since he was only wearing boxers and a t-shirt, filled a glass with water, then padded back upstairs to Newt’s room.  
  
Newt took the glass of water gratefully, gulping down mouthfuls of water before handing the glass back to Thomas. Thomas took a few sips, swishing the water around his mouth before swallowing, then set the glass on the nightstand and collapsed back onto the bed on top of Newt. Newt, still under the duvet, groaned softly, and Thomas rolled to the side so he could fling the duvet over himself as well and snuggle up to Newt.  
  
“Argh, your hands are freezing,” Newt complained.  
  
“Why don’t you help me warm them up?” Thomas teased him.  
  
“And how would you suggest I do that?” Newt asked with a smirk, eyebrows raised in that look that never failed to give Thomas tingles.  
  
“Friction is supposed to make things warmer,” Thomas answered, wiggling his eyebrows significantly.  
  
Newt laughed. “God, you’re such a dork.”  
  
“I’m _your_ dork,” Thomas said, kissing his jawline.  
  
Newt’s smile softened. “How did I ever fall for a twat like you?”  
  
Instead of answering, Thomas continued kissing Newt, moving down to his neck, sucking gently and caressing with his tongue. His lips moved up to that spot just behind the joint of Newt’s jaw, just underneath his ear. Newt leaned his head back, and Thomas nibbled at his earlobe, then moved to his cheek. When his mouth found Newt’s mouth, his tongue delved inside, slowly but purposefully, and his lips moved languidly in conjunction with Newt’s. Thomas bit down gently on Newt’s lower lip, letting his teeth scrape just slightly, and he felt more than heard Newt’s groan in response. His hips dug into Newt’s, and he could feel Newt’s pelvic bones rubbing against his, and it was the best thing in the world.  
  
Breathing heavily, Thomas moved against Newt by instinct alone, knowing only the feel of Newt’s skin on his face, on his lips, on his tongue. Thomas felt a desperate yearning, a need to feel Newt all over, a need to cover him completely. His lips moved down to Newt’s chin, to the soft part underneath, where Thomas could disappear for hours. He knew he was emitting soft moans; not even real moans, just quiet noises from the back of his throat, signals of his longing for Newt. Newt’s hands were pushing his shirt up, feeling along his ribs and chest, and Thomas sat up and raised his arms over his head, allowing Newt to pull his shirt off. Newt sat up as well so that Thomas could remove his shirt, and then Thomas had full access to every inch of Newt’s wonderful, glorious chest and abs and stomach and ribs and shoulders. Thomas leaned down again, rolling his body against Newt’s, feeling Newt all along his stomach and chest, rubbing his face against Newt’s cheek. When he began kissing Newt’s skin again, his kisses were all taking, sucking and pulling gently with his lips.  
  
Eventually Newt retrieved the lube from the drawer in the nightstand, and he leaned over Thomas, kissing his stomach and working his fingers into him. And then, when he was ready, Newt pushed into Thomas, slow at first, but then faster and faster, and Thomas’s hands were grasping the sheets and his head was leaning back and he was crying out, trying to keep quiet but not quite succeeding.  
  
Afterward, Newt slumped against Thomas, panting, and Thomas rubbed his back and neck, one hand sliding up to entwine gently in his hair.  
  
When they had both cleaned up, they lay together, arms wrapped around each other, foreheads touching. Thomas wished he could stay like this forever.  
  
Almost as if he had read Thomas’s thoughts, Newt asked, “How long does your visa last again?”  
  
“My graduation is in about a month, and it lasts until three weeks after that,” Thomas answered.  
  
“What are we going to do after that?” Newt asked softly, looking at Thomas, the uncertainty Thomas felt mirrored in Newt’s dark brown eyes.  
  
“I don’t know,” Thomas said truthfully. “I’m trying to get a job, so I can get a work visa. But I don’t know.”  
  
“How does that work? Getting a work visa?”  
  
“Ugh,” Thomas groaned. “It’s a huge pain in the ass. I don’t even want to think about it, it’s just depressing.”  
  
“Sorry. I didn’t know it was so difficult.”  
  
“Yeah, your government keep making it harder and harder to get visas. If a company wants to offer me a job, they have to have posted the job description for 30 days and not gotten any qualified British applicants. Otherwise they have to give them the job instead of me. And they have to jump through all kinds of hoops to sponsor me for a visa.”  
  
“Fuck,” Newt swore softly. His mouth turned down as his fingers played with the short wispy hairs at the nape of Thomas’s neck  
  
“It makes it really hard to find anyone willing to give me a job,” Thomas continued, stroking Newt’s shoulder. “I’ve gotten a lot of phone calls after they see my CV, but then as soon as they find out I need to be sponsored for a visa, they lose interest.”  
  
“I’m sorry. That sucks.”  
  
“The worst part is, they used to let you stay for like 6 months after you graduated to look for a job, and if you found a job in that time, they would waive the 30-day job posting requirement. So it used to be a lot easier to stay if you went to school here, but then they changed it.”  
  
“Because England hates immigrants,” Newt groaned.  
  
“Yep.” Thomas grimaced.  
  
“Well, do you have any other options?” Newt asked. “Is there another type of visa you could get?”  
  
“Not really, the Tier 2 visa is really my best bet at this point.”  
  
Newt eyes flickered in concern, searching Thomas’s. “What will you do if you have to go back?”  
  
Thomas looked down, trying to sound casual. “I don’t know, I guess get a job somewhere in the US that’s far away from my parents. At least the US is pretty big so it shouldn’t be that hard.”  
  
“I could move with you to America.”  
  
Thomas looked back at Newt, smiling grimly. “I think you’ll run into a similar problem there. America hates immigrants just as much as England does. If not more.”  
  
“Fucking government,” Newt sighed.  
  
Thomas chuckled. “Would you really move to America just to be with me?”  
  
“Well, maybe not _just_ for you,” Newt said with a hint of a smile. “I hear it’s sunnier there.”  
  
Thomas laughed, but then turned serious again as a thought occurred to him. “You’d be so far away from your family. From Sonya.”  
  
“True.” Newt’s eyes flicked away from Thomas, and the ends of his mouth quirked down.  
  
“Besides, I think I’d rather stay here anyway. If I can.” Thomas smiled, and Newt met his eyes again, smiling as well. “I’ve been building my life here for the past three years, and I have a lot of friends here.”  
  
“You could claim political asylum because of your oompa-loompa president.”  
  
“I know you’re just joking, but I would never insult actual refugees by claiming my situation is anything like theirs.”  
  
“Sorry, bad joke.”  
  
“It’s ok.”  
  
They were silent for a beat, then Newt suggested, “We could always get married.”  
  
“Oh my god. What’s the equivalent of a green card marriage over here? Like, what’s it called?”  
  
“I’m not sure.” Newt screwed his face up in concentration. “I think we still refer to it as a green card marriage, at least in conversation, even though there’s no green card. One of those things that’s just leaked in from American culture.”  
  
“Hmm,” Thomas hummed thoughtfully. “Well, I wouldn’t want to put that kind of pressure on you. We’ve only been dating for like a month and a half.”  
  
“Longer, if you count the stuff before.”  
  
“That doesn’t count and you know it.” Thomas grinned at Newt. “And even if it did count, we still haven’t been together long enough to get married.”  
  
“Some people get married after that long,” Newt argued. “And if it’s between that and you leaving, I’d rather get married.”  
  
“Have I slipped into some parallel universe or something?” Thomas asked incredulously. “How and why are _you_ the one arguing for us getting married? You were the one who didn’t even want to be in a relationship until less than two months ago.”  
  
Newt looked down in embarrassment. “I’m not saying I think we definitely should do it. I don’t feel like I’m going to be ready to be married to anyone any time soon. I just…” He looked up, meeting Thomas’s eye. “I just want you to know that I’m all in. On us, I mean. And I don’t want it to be ruined because you have to leave.”  
  
“Hey,” Thomas said, reaching out to stroke Newt’s cheek with the back of his fingers. “I’m all in too.” He tried to convey all his sincerity in his tone.  
  
Thomas wondered if he should tell Newt about the thing from three weeks ago… but no, there was no point getting his hopes up when Thomas still wasn’t sure if it would pan out. Better to wait until it was actually a thing, and that way if it fell through, Newt wouldn’t have to be disappointed.  
  
“I have a couple more interviews in London this week,” Thomas told him instead. “Maybe one of those will turn into something.”  
  
Newt smiled at him. “London, huh? I like London.”  
  
“Are you moving with me to London now?”  
  
“London would definitely be easier than America. We could get a cheap little flat together,” Newt grinned at him. “Share expenses. Go on Sunday walks in the park. You know, coupley stuff.”  
  
“Are you sure it’s not too early for us to be moving in together?” Thomas said skeptically.  
  
“You practically live here now anyway,” Newt pointed out.  
  
“I just don’t want you to feel like we have to rush into anything, because of my visa situation. Especially since you weren’t keen on being in a relationship to start out with.”  
  
“It’s not just because of your visa situation,” Newt said quietly, looking down. “And I know it feels like a lot so soon, but… this is by far the best relationship I’ve ever been in. And I know the stuff before doesn’t _really_ count, but the fact that we had it, I don’t know, I guess it makes it feel like this has been longer than it’s actually been. This just feels… different to anything I’ve been in before. Healthier. Stronger.”  
  
“I think I get it,” Thomas said. “I feel that too. It feels like we’re farther along than we actually are. But I’m afraid it’s not real, it’s just because we’re panicking about me having to leave, and everything seems better than it actually is.” Thomas exhaled heavily through his nose. “I’m afraid we’re committing too fast to something that might not be able to survive the visa process. Or lack of visa, if that’s what happens.”  
  
“That can’t be true,” Newt said quietly, his eyes sad and beseeching. “I refuse to believe it.”  
  
Thomas didn’t answer.  
  
“I love you,” Newt said softly, almost desperately. “And we can’t give up. _You_ can’t give up. I won’t let you.”  
  
“I love you, too. And I’m not giving up,” Thomas answered. Newt leaned in to kiss him, and Thomas returned the kiss, but inside he felt paralyzed with fear and doubt. Thomas thought about their recent lovemaking, and he couldn’t help wondering how many more times they would have. Maybe their days together were numbered, slowly counting down, and they just didn’t know it yet.  
  
A few days later, after he returned from his trip to London for the interviews, Thomas went by Newt’s. Newt had given him a key a few weeks ago, so Thomas let himself in and went upstairs to Newt’s room. He found Newt huddled under the duvet, looking like a snuggly, adorable burrito. Thomas took off his jacket and shoes before crawling into bed to join Newt in the burrito.  
  
“Hey,” he said softly, wriggling up next to Newt and kissing him lightly on the back of the neck.  
  
Newt just grunted in response.  
  
“How’s your day been so far?”  
  
“Mmm.”  
  
“Wow, you’re so talkative today,” Thomas teased him.  
  
“Uhh.” Newt whined. Thomas tried to wrap his arms around him and pull him in closer, but Newt shifted away from him, and Thomas finally realised it wasn’t a game.  
  
“Newt, what’s wrong?” Thomas asked, sitting up.  
  
“I’m just not in the mood,” Newt answered, still facing away from Thomas.  
  
“I’m sorry,” Thomas apologised sincerely. “I didn’t realise you were actually upset. I thought we were just joking around.” Newt didn’t say anything. “Did something happen today?”  
  
Newt sighed, and finally rolled over to face Thomas. “I don’t want to tell you. You’ll think it’s stupid.”  
  
“No, I won’t. Just tell me.”  
  
Newt sat up slowly, pushing his knees up and leaning his head on his them. His eyes drooped sadly. “Don’t freak out but… I researched marriage visas.”  
  
“You did?”  
  
“Yeah. And it’s not as simple as I thought. There’s a financial requirement. We have to have enough savings and combined salary to prove we can support ourselves. And since you can’t legally be employed yet, it would have to all be my salary. And I have to have held it for at least 6 months, and have had the right amount of savings for 6 months, and it can’t dip below the amount even once the whole time.” The longer Newt talked, the higher his voice went, and he talked faster and faster, working himself into agitation. “So even if I got a job with a high enough salary today, I would have to build up the savings and hold it for 6 months before we could even apply. And then we’d have to prove we were in a real relationship.”  
  
“Well, that part wouldn’t be so hard,” Thomas said, trying to calm Newt down. “We _are_ in a real relationship. We could use our phone records, pictures of us doing stuff together.”  
  
Newt smiled wryly. “As much as I like the idea of our sexting being in a legal government document, I’m afraid they wouldn’t think it was enough.”  
  
“I wasn’t thinking that,” Thomas said, blushing. “I meant like, our regular phone or text conversations. And pictures of us on dates. Not… that.”  
  
“I don’t even know what kind of thing they would be looking for; how exactly do you prove a relationship? The whole idea of having to show proof of our relationship feels kind of degrading.”  
  
“Yeah, I know what you mean.”  
  
“I still have that letter you wrote me,” Newt said, and Thomas smiled, reaching out to squeeze Newt’s hand. “I guess we could use that? And maybe I could write you a letter, and we could write back and forth to each other?”  
  
“If we have to, I guess. That letter was just supposed to be for you… I kind of hate the idea of some government official reading it and using it to judge if we really love each other or not.”  
  
“Me too. But if we have to…”  
  
“Yeah.” Thomas dropped Newt’s hand and looked down at his lap.  
  
“But that still doesn’t solve the problem of what we would do while we were building up savings,” Newt continued. “Your visa expires in what, about 6 more weeks? That’s not enough time. You’ll have to go back, and then we’d be apart for months, maybe even years.”  
  
“Some people make long distance work. We could at least give it a try, if it comes to that.”  
  
“I can barely stand going three days without seeing you,” Newt said sadly. “Do you really think we can go for months at a time? With only phone calls or skype? And with the time difference? It’ll be that much harder. And if we’re flying back and forth to visit each other every few months, it’ll take even longer to build up enough savings to meet the financial requirement.”  
  
Thomas huffed out a breath. “I’m trying to be at least a tiny bit optimistic here, do you mind?”  
  
“I’m sorry,” Newt said, and Thomas could see tears in his eyes. “I just… the more I read about it, the more hopeless it seemed. I finally had to give up reading, and I’ve been moping in bed until you got here. It really feels like… like this will never work. And it’s making me too sad to even think about it.”  
  
“Don’t say that,” Thomas whispered sadly, reaching out to take both Newt’s hands in his own.  
  
“Maybe it would be better if we just… admitted defeat. If it’s going to happen anyway, it might be better to do it now, rather than drag it out for months, trying to do long distance and then failing. It will just make it even more painful when it eventually ends.” The tears in Newt’s eyes spilled over, and a few drops trickled down his cheeks.  
  
“Hey. Look at me,” Thomas told him sternly, taking Newt’s face between both his hands, brushing the tears away with his thumbs. “We’re not admitting defeat. It’s going to be ok. We’ll figure something out.”  
  
“I just hate thinking that after everything, after we finally found our way to each other, we’re going to be separated because of fucking immigration law, of all things.”  
  
“I’m not leaving you, Newt. And if I do, I’ll come back. I promise.”  
  
“You may not have a choice.”  
  
“We’re not going to give up, ok? We’ll make it work. Somehow.” Thomas pulled Newt in and kissed him, and their kisses were hungry and desperate, searching for some kind of reassurance that neither of them could give.  
  
Thomas pulled back abruptly. “I have to tell you something,” he said. He’d wanted to wait until he was sure, but… now giving Newt some kind of hope, any at all, seemed like the better option. “A few weeks ago, I had an interview that went really well. The guy really liked me.”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“And he said he hadn’t gotten any applicants as qualified as me, but just to be safe he would re-post the job description, but worded very carefully so it basically describes my exact qualifications, so I’ll clearly be the best qualified applicant. If it works they should be able to sponsor me for a visa.”  
  
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Newt demanded. “You were just going to let me tear myself apart thinking we would have to break up?”  
  
“Well, it’s still not a sure thing. I didn’t want you to get your hopes up and then be disappointed if it didn’t work out. I’m sorry.”  
  
“I guess that makes sense,” Newt admitted, sighing. “But I still want you to tell me things like that. When will you find out?”  
  
“Probably soon. The thirty days are almost up.”  
  
“I don’t know… I want to be hopeful but I’m afraid to be _too_ hopeful.”  
  
“Me, too.” Thomas was holding both Newt’s hands in his own again, and he squeezed them gently. “But it means we have a chance. We don’t have to give up just yet.”  
  
“I didn’t really want to give up,” Newt said earnestly, gazing at Thomas, his eyes shining. “I was just having a low moment.”  
  
“I know.” Thomas smiled softly, then leaned in to kiss Newt again, his hand rising up to hold Newt’s face, stroking lightly as their lips brushed.  
  
It was a few days later, and Thomas still hadn’t heard back about the job, and it was starting to make him anxious. He hated having everything so open, unsettled. It felt impossible to make any future plans when he didn’t even know which continent he would be living on in a few weeks’ time.  
  
Every afternoon he went over to Newt’s, Newt would ask him if he’d heard back about the job yet, and Thomas would have to tell him he hadn’t, and watch Newt deflate just a little. But today, after receiving the same answer, Newt still seemed… chipper.  
  
“This is different,” Thomas commented.  
  
“What is?” Newt asked.  
  
“Normally when I tell you I haven’t heard back from them yet, you get that look like you’re a kicked puppy.”  
  
“I do not have a look like that!” Newt protested.  
  
Thomas slid his arms around Newt’s waist. “Are we going to argue about this look that you definitely have, or are you going to tell me why you’re so cheerful despite the lack of resolution to my visa status?”  
  
Newt rolled his eyes, but he put his arms around Thomas’s neck and flashed a small smile. “I did some more research into our visa options.”  
  
“You and your fucking research, I swear to god,” Thomas laughed, shaking his head in amusement.  
  
“I like to be prepared,” Newt said indignantly, but he was smiling. “Bite me.”  
  
“If you insist.” Thomas grinned slyly.  
  
Newt grinned. “Shut your stupid, beautiful mouth for a second and hear me out.”  
  
Thomas made a show of clamping his mouth shut and raised his eyebrows at Newt, waiting for him to continue.  
  
“Canada,” Newt declared. “Canada loves immigrants! We can both move to Canada. I didn’t research it as in-depth, but it looks like it’s so much easier to get a work visa in Canada, you just apply, there aren’t so many hoops to jump through.”  
  
“Canada, hm?” Thomas said thoughtfully. “I guess it could work. But you’d still be really far away from your family…”  
  
“It would only be temporary,” Newt continued. “Just so we could be together while we work and save up so we can apply for the marriage visa. And it’s only a backup plan, in case you can’t get a job here with the Tier 2 visa.”  
  
Thomas felt his lips curling into a smile, and he snaked his arms tighter around Newt’s middle, pulling him closer. “America, London, now Canada?” he said in a teasing voice. “You just want to travel the world with me, don’t you?”  
  
“Tommy, I would follow you anywhere,” Newt said, and Thomas believed him.

**Author's Note:**

> I just want to make a few notes:
> 
> 1\. I'm very much aware that immigration law is a reflection of the general feeling of the population, and that in countries that have harsh immigration laws, the laws were made that way because a significant portion of the population supported it. And that a lot of times harsh immigration laws arise from racism. I know the government doesn't just spontaneously create these laws; in the story they don't talk about that aspect, but that's just because they're talking about it in casual conversation, and I don't want anyone to think I'm writing it off as "lol the government sucks" as if individual people have nothing to do with it.
> 
> 2\. I'm also aware of the characters' relative privilege, as white middle class citizens. If their situation is difficult, imagine how much worse it is for people with a low income or people of color. (Especially people of color from the "wrong countries".)
> 
> 3\. I hope it doesn't seem like I'm shitting on UK immigration law; I'm not a UK citizen and I don't want to be insensitive. I fully realize that American immigration law is just as harsh, if not more so. Since the story takes place in England, UK immigration law was just discussed more.
> 
> Sorry if it got too political for anyone, I didn't really intend it to but this is just something that came up when I was writing the original story, so I thought I'd address it more fully, and then it kind of snowballed. It is something that I have a lot of feelings about though so I hope it comes across well.
> 
> Also, I intentionally left the ending a bit open-ended, but if anyone's just dying to know, in my head Thomas does end up getting the job and he and Newt move to London. I'm not sure if they move in together right away, since they haven't been dating that long, and Thomas has the work visa so there's no pressure to move in together, but on the other hand, rent in London is pretty expensive, so it would make financial sense... ;)


End file.
